If you’re like a lot of guys out there, you probably think tasting whisky is drinking it straight out of the bottle and going bubbles up as opposed to mixing it with your favorite carbonated beverage. If you’re not among this classy group, congratulations; you’ve been paying attention to what we’ve been telling you. Still, there’s a significant portion of the population that doesn’t know that you can taste whisky in much the same fashion as you taste wine. These are the guys who think Wild Turkey and Jameson are the same, the guys who think it’s a shot anytime a small portion of whisky is placed in front of them.

Regardless of how you've enjoyed it in the past, the best way to enjoy whisky is to savor it, the way you might a very good wine. We're here to help you take the first steps into a broader world by instructing you on how to set up your own whisky tasting.

To help us present you with the best information possible on how to set up your own whisky tasting, we contacted Ian Millar (Master Distiller of Glenfiddich) for some tips and pointers. While Glenfiddich is a single blend Scotch and we’re talking about whisky, Ian explained to us that: “whisky’s a generic name for many things because within whisky you get bourbons, you get ryes, you get Canadians, you get blended Scotch, but you also get single malt Scotch.” Whatever your poison, luxury whisky or otherwise, the steps you'll need to take to set up your own whisky tasting are the same.

What you’ll need

-Friends, because it’s no fun to drink alone.

-A variety of whiskys, because the more the better.

-Tulip-shaped glasses, because they best contain the aromas.

-Room-temperature spring water, because tap water contains chemicals that intrude on the flavors and aromas of the whisky.

-Unsalted crackers to cleanse your palate between different whiskys.

What you need to know about whisky

Before we get into the steps to take to set up your own whisky tasting, you should know what to look for as a novice whisky taster. “Primarily, it’s about taste accessibility,” says Ian Millar. While taste and flavor are important, it gets a bit more complicated and you’ll be looking for “three or four different notes [and] things like complexity of flavor, things like its finish. … So, the nose is very important and the flavor is extremely important, but the complexity of flavor and the long finish are what people are looking for.”

While there are plenty of variations of whisky, as a novice, “the No. 1 thing you would need to know [about them] is the difference between one and the other and maybe something about their heritage as well; know about the different categories and the kind of flavors you’d expect from one or the other.” However, because blends are often complicated due to their constitution, “a safe introduction to whiskey is to choose from the single malt category.”